Goodbye everyone who cares. It has been an interesting ride, but it is over for my part. SG was interesting because it gave porn voices of integrity and pride, not just the standard dishonest, sleazy smut that is so common.
Old habits die hard, though. By clamping down hard on anyone asking questions, models and members alike, this place gets all the less interesting. It acquires the same claustrophobic feel that other sites have, and which I am not comfortable with.
So have fun. Without me.
Old habits die hard, though. By clamping down hard on anyone asking questions, models and members alike, this place gets all the less interesting. It acquires the same claustrophobic feel that other sites have, and which I am not comfortable with.
So have fun. Without me.
Ah, how time flies by. I just spent nearly a month studying Kant's ethical theory. Now I'm rereading William Gibson's Neuromancer to keep myself sane. Gibson is such a great writer. Before this I read George RR Martin's newest epic, awesome as always, the Revelation Space series by Alastair Reynolds and 'Norwegian Wood' by Haruki Murakami.
In other slow news, I have been working on Warzone 2100, an old 3D RTS game that was recently released for free with source code and (most) game data. It has taken and still takes a lot of work to turn this into something stable and useful, though, since the source code was a horrible mess... "Commercial quality" is indeed a misnomer.
In other slow news, I have been working on Warzone 2100, an old 3D RTS game that was recently released for free with source code and (most) game data. It has taken and still takes a lot of work to turn this into something stable and useful, though, since the source code was a horrible mess... "Commercial quality" is indeed a misnomer.
Busy, busy, busy. Not much time to even look here lately, let alone write anything sensible. However, I did take some time to put some thoughts on game design on the intarweb. If you find stuff like that interesting, head over to livejournal.
I'm writing a philosophy thesis on justice and rights. Focus is on the role and development of active rights (those are rights seen as held and upheld by individuals). In case you did not know, the history of active rights is a pretty dismal one. The major rights theoreticians until Locke were almost without exception absolutists and also often supporters of slavery, and formed their rights theories against those who opposed absolutism and slavery. Quite interesting stuff.
Right now I'm struggling with moral realism and the ontological status of the concept of justice. (If you have any idea what I'm talking about - congratulations.)
I am a big fan of Marx, but in in relationship to justice and rights, he has very little to say apart from rhetorics. I think Marx (and especially Engels) got a little relativist at times, and when talking about justice this is particularly obvious. While I find their politics repugnant, both Hayek and Nozick are interesting philosophers. Rawls is boring but unavoidable. I have a lot of sympathy with Kant, including his moral philosophy, but I am not sure his pure rationalism holds up. I suspect there is no way around looking at human nature to find a proper basis for moral philosophy.
Anyway, if you really read all the above, you deserve a medal. Or a life. So thrown in a comment while you're at it. Literature tips received with infinite gratitude.
Right now I'm struggling with moral realism and the ontological status of the concept of justice. (If you have any idea what I'm talking about - congratulations.)
I am a big fan of Marx, but in in relationship to justice and rights, he has very little to say apart from rhetorics. I think Marx (and especially Engels) got a little relativist at times, and when talking about justice this is particularly obvious. While I find their politics repugnant, both Hayek and Nozick are interesting philosophers. Rawls is boring but unavoidable. I have a lot of sympathy with Kant, including his moral philosophy, but I am not sure his pure rationalism holds up. I suspect there is no way around looking at human nature to find a proper basis for moral philosophy.
Anyway, if you really read all the above, you deserve a medal. Or a life. So thrown in a comment while you're at it. Literature tips received with infinite gratitude.
I discovered the Daily Show like a month ago, and I've seen 20 episodes so far. It is such a blast. I just love Jon Stewart. In a very Platonic sense, of course. Not that Plato approved of satire. Anyway, it rocks.
Just came back from the Norwegian Social Forum, a national variant of the World Social Forum. Bigger and more inspiring than ever before, it was just great on the whole.
By some incredible coincidence I stumbled into a guy from El Salvador who was in my workshop in an international student festival in 2001, where I was a workshop facilitator. Turns out he later moved to Norway and has a relationship with a Norwegian girl who was in the same workshop. I had no idea. Amazing.
I also met an incredible American street performer from New York, who was just fantastic with a violin, playing Norwegian, Irish and American folk tunes as well as his own stuff, and could play along to anything others played.
One of the more interesting projects presented is an attempt to win back the word 'individualism' from the exclusive ownership of the right, showing that it is not socialism and individualism that must conflict, but rather liberalism and individualism must conflict for the great majority of people. There is a book out on this now, and I look forward to reading it.
By some incredible coincidence I stumbled into a guy from El Salvador who was in my workshop in an international student festival in 2001, where I was a workshop facilitator. Turns out he later moved to Norway and has a relationship with a Norwegian girl who was in the same workshop. I had no idea. Amazing.
I also met an incredible American street performer from New York, who was just fantastic with a violin, playing Norwegian, Irish and American folk tunes as well as his own stuff, and could play along to anything others played.
One of the more interesting projects presented is an attempt to win back the word 'individualism' from the exclusive ownership of the right, showing that it is not socialism and individualism that must conflict, but rather liberalism and individualism must conflict for the great majority of people. There is a book out on this now, and I look forward to reading it.
I tried archery again yesterday. Been ten years since I last fired a bow, then using a bow I made myself from a piece of wood. My home made bow was just as powerful as the practice bow I got to test yesterday, but the accuracy was of course a different class altogether. Consistently hit the target at 12 meters after just practicing three series at 5 meters. Got a good feeling for it. But the sport requires a way too expensive first investment, and I really don't have time for it anyway, so I won't be picking it up any time soon. Floorball and biking is enough sports for me at the moment.
Now, on to read more Hart vs Dworkin on rules, principles and law.
Now, on to read more Hart vs Dworkin on rules, principles and law.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
-- William Butler Yeats,
The Second Coming
One of the greatest poems ever. It is funny that so many people read it as a Christian piece, when Yeats was a pagan and the poem is in part a mockery of the idea of a Second Coming.
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
-- William Butler Yeats,
The Second Coming
One of the greatest poems ever. It is funny that so many people read it as a Christian piece, when Yeats was a pagan and the poem is in part a mockery of the idea of a Second Coming.
